In my experience for many people unfamiliar with anxiety, it seems like anxious people are "playing it safe" or that they lack "mental fortitude." Of course nothing could be further from the truth.

When you look in the mirror, see how tough you actually are, how strong anxiety has made you and how courageous you have become. Stop being your worst critic and start treating yourself like you would treat your best friend.

It can be very scary when your anxiety turns into nearly violent anger. The worst part is that most of the time it happens when you're around people that are close to you like your family, friends and colleagues.

Even though you know in the back of your mind that you don't want to hurt them, something sets you off and you blow up on whoever's around you. And you know what the worst part is? It's the guilt and the shame once it's over. It's other people thinking you're unpleasant, dangerous and potentially violent.

Many people intuitively self-medicate with alcohol. In fact, society relies on moderate drinking to control our anxiety levels. It's just an easy and affordable way to take the edge off. It can make you into the person you "used to be" and you can feel "normal" again. It's usually the longing for this feeling of "being normal" and "unhindered" that people start drinking for stress-relief.

However, there's a catch. Although alcohol can lower your stress levels, hangovers the next day will be devastating. Most people feel edgy and depressed for days afterwards and that's not counting the shame and the guilt that you can end up feeling over anything you might have said or done while you were drunk.

Binge eating is one of the sneakiest stress relief mistakes that I know of. If you can stop eating excessive amounts of unhealthy foods, you'll be able to reduce your stress levels by at least 20%.

The funny thing is that getting rid of the shame, the guilt and the inner conflict of constantly craving sugary snacks while knowing that it's actually bad for you releases a lot more stress from your life than binge eating ever will.

That's something that I've been hearing all of my life whenever I plucked up the courage to tell someone about my nagging worries. It's probably the number one most generic response I would hear: "Just let it go."

Yeah, as if it was that simple.

And yet, being able to let go of your anxious thoughts is an incredibly important skill. Yeah, you read that right, it's a skill; that means anyone can learn it, including you.

Research shows that about 30% of the population suffers from insomnia. In fact, more than half of Americans lose some sleep because of stress or anxiety. As you can see, stress can drastically affect the quality of your sleep.

What people often don't know is that insomnia can put your health at risk. It turns out that if you're having trouble enjoying a good night's sleep, it can make you 27% more likely to become overweight. And there's nothing worse than waking up after a long night's sleep with very low energy feeling like getting out of bed is a battle.

When social anxiety hits, we start fumbling our words and try to talk way too fast to make up for our brains freezing in fear. This of course only makes you feel even more insecure and stupid. Maybe you clear your throat to camouflage your embarrassment or try to smile to make it seem like you're cool with it but you're not and you only come across as weird. If you learn to keep your composure when talking to other people and clear your mind of all those anxious intrusive thoughts, you'll be more successful at work and you'll be able to quickly establish deeper and more meaningful relationships with people.

Your inbox is probably the first source of frustration that you come into contact with in the morning. It's that first dose of adrenaline that sets your system up for a stressful day. If you could just eliminate the perceived pressure of obsessively checking your inbox, then you'd be able to start your day calm, cool and collected. On the other hand, if you allow your inbox to control your life, you're going to set yourself up for a vicious cycle of anxious multi-tasking and frustration.

Social media is a constant source of anxiety in most of our lives. Looking at the wonderful pictures, posts and videos of our friends we often end up feeling anxious that they're so much more perfect than us, right? Social media creates a distorted reality around us where almost everybody else seems to be happy, successful, healthy and beautiful all the time. This can sometimes make us feel unsatisfied with ourselves, or even unworthy of attention.

Over the past about 10 years that I've been studying stress and anxiety I realized that there is one huge misbelief about anxiety that stops people from overcoming their nagging fears and worries. And that misbelief is that anxiety is a crippling or debilitating condition.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: While our informational products are founded on years of research and development, individual results are based on a variety of factors and will vary significantly by individual. In no way are our products intended to function as or replace counseling received from a licensed professional. Testimonials we receive from our clients are authentic, however their experiences and results achieved should not be viewed as typical.